The Red & Blue Streak
by KaguyaHiroshima
Summary: A freak Electric strike in the park and suddenly Peter Parker no longer finds being bitten by a spider to be the weirdest thing to happen to him. A freak in a white suit, sudden newfound abilities, and things are only getting started. (Kind of a slow burn type story)
1. PROLOGUE

PROLOGUE

A strangely quiet evening for the usually lively city. The park was desolate and poorly lit, the only sound was the occasional engine from passing traffic.

A sudden burst of lighting and blue cloud of smoke appeared only for a brief second before dissipating. But not before leaving behind a certain someone.

In the singed grass stood a tall man, sporting a solid white suit, golden streak running along the friction proof fabric. He held his hands up, watching the loose sparks of lighting leap from his finger tips before clenching them up.

A beep from his bracelet, one that pulled a holographic map of Queens up. A small, faint dot blinking on the screen, one that the figure tapped to pull up a screen filled with text.

"Dormant Tachyons...How peculiar." The figure's voice vibrated before a sharp streak of lighting fled the park, and the mysterious figure along with it.

**Author's Note :**

This entire story will be set in an AU universe simply for the flow of the story – AKA, everyone is dandy and fine and can show up at any point.

Also, I'm not necessarily aiming at accuracy, this is just for fun, just so you aware :)


	2. ONE

Morning broke and with it came another typical day. Peter was up early and already making his way to school. While he was naturally looking forward to the after school activities, he still took pride in his eduction. But, something felt a little off today.

It was like, the second he left the house he'd been feeling tingling in his hands, almost like they were going numb, but he choked it up to nothing more than the stress of both being an average teen and also a not so average teen.

He'd arrived no problem, the tingling seemed to have faded and so took the time to meet up with Ned before heading to their first class.

"Hey, you're still going to study with me at lunch before the physics exam this afternoon, right?" Ned asked. The lesson had begun, a study session the teacher had set up, allowing the student to sit and discuss while they worked. Ned and Peter had tucked themselves into the corner, both because they felt like outcasts, but also prone to telling more questionable stories.

"Of course." Peter replied. "But you know it's just a pop quiz."

"Yeah, but it still stresses me out." He replied, skimming through the book he had open on the table, looking to find where he'd left off. He quickly ditched that effort and looked back up at Peter who'd pulled a pen out to start making notes. "Tell me something interesting to distract me."

"Like what?"

"I don't know, what did you do yesterday?"

"When?" Peter huffed in a whisper, looking around the classroom to see everyone else happily working away.

"You know, after school." Ned prompted, simply getting a head shake and silence for a few seconds before Peter spoke,

"Not a lot. It was quiet yesterday." Peter whispered, disappointment in his voice as he started scribbling in his notebook.

"Oh." Ned hummed, tapping his fingers against the book pages for a few minutes before seeming to be struck with an idea, sneakily pulling out his phone and pulling up a news article about the park. "Did you have anything to do with this?"

Peter paused again, taking the phone and briefly skimming the article. It was only a few paragraphs, asking if anyone had any information regarding a patch of fire damage in the park. He shook his head and handed the phone back to Ned before picking up the pen. But as he did, he felt a sudden...shock from the plastic and let it leap from his hands and it clapped against several tables before landing close to the other side of the classroom. A few curious glances from the other student before they went back to their work.

Ned sat in momentary shock as he looked at Peter and than at the pen, slowly turning back to his friend and asking, "What was..." He began before Peter interrupted.

"You wouldn't happen to have a spare pen would you?"

A few hours later and the tingling had returned on and off throughout the day. He hadn't quite experienced any more shocks but was growing a little more concerned but figured there'd be an explanation somewhere.

He decided he'd look into after he'd finished with school and his part time superhero gig, and instead focused on studying with Ned over lunch and making his way into the physics quiz pretty confidently. He took his seat and looked at the paper sitting in front of him, waiting for the go-ahead to begin.

As he waited for everyone else to be seated and set up he took a glance out the window to his right, seeing the street as busy as ever. Though something briefly caught his eye, a street lamp on the far side of the road seemed to be almost...flickering. He squinted, a rather odd occurrence though it wasn't like he'd never seen a street light remain on in the daytime. But the flickering seemed to get worse and then relax randomly. But before he was able to lose himself in thought,

"You'll have 45 minutes to complete the booklet in front of you." The teacher said, pulling Peter back into the class. He clenched his fists together as the tingling began coming back. "You may begin."

He turned the paper over, picked up and pen and began working through the questions. It was easy enough at first, though the numbness in his fingers made it hard to write consistently. He took a deep breath and just tried working through it, figuring it would pass like every other time.

But as he went to write another answer, the strokes of the pen were shaky, the lines wonky and growing more unintelligible, he looked closer at his hands and saw them slowly twitching, twitches that were growing into a shake.

He tried to relax, and focus on his breathing hoping that it would kerb the shaking, but it didn't seem to make a difference, instead it began to feel like his arms were locking up, he found he couldn't even release the pen from his grip, his arms uncontrollably tensing. He was finding it hard to relax at this point but had no idea what to do, naturally, his eyes flicked around the room, even glancing out the window.

And in that brief glance out the window he saw something more unusual. What looked like lighting flashing down the road for just a second, but as Peter's eyes locked on the street, he saw another flash, and then a third. Except that third seemed to hover. Lighting dancing in on spot on the road, not far from the now blaring street lamp, then disappearing. The lamp seeming to go bust as the light shut off, and suddenly control flood back into Peter's arms, the whole sensation had disappeared just as quick as it had arrived.

Peter didn't even want to give it a chance, grabbing his bag he dashed out the classroom, ignoring the teacher's request to return to his seat. He darted out the school, hoping the fence to the street, looking the road up and down but there seemed no sign of the lighting he'd seen.

But just as he was about to return to the school, he noticed the burned tarmac of the road. Steaks of black soot lining the road, speckles where it had hovered and even more peculiar was where the lighting had been moments ago now sat...footprints.


	3. TWO

Alarmed at his discovery, Peter snapped a photo of the black footprints and made his way to the school library, getting hold of one of the computers and looking up the article Ned had shown him earlier.

He soured several sources, few really going into depth and most brushing it off a freak electrical storm that occurred during the night. But one small blog seemed to think otherwise. They'd posted a few photos up and listed several conspiracy theories, most of which Peter overlooked, more interested in the scene pictures.

Similar black soot lined the grass, trailing from one concentrated spot towards the fencing, fading out as the trail went cold. Though, unlike the footprints left behind on the tarmac, this patch of soot seemed explosive that looked to have been halves. The lines facing out only one way, as if something had been thrown.

In his distraction he hadn't noticed Ned rushing over to his side, and tapping him on the shoulder. He jumped, looking at his friend who shook his head in confusion.

"Dude, why'd you run out like that?" Ned asked, sitting in the seat beside Peter, who scratched his head as he considered whether to tell his him, or not.

"It's...I saw something outside."

"Oh, like a crime?" Ned chimed, excited at the prospect that Peter had suited up and stopped some elaborate crime just outside the school.

"Not exactly." He replied, Ned's excitement dropping but still perking up at Peter's excuse. "There was freak...lighting outside."

"Freak lighting?"

"Here, look at this." Peter pulled up the photo he'd taken showing it to Ned who reeled in shock.

"Someone was in that lightning?"

"Maybe...I thought maybe it might be linked to that article you showed me..."

"So, what, you think that this isn't a freak storm?"

"Maybe." Peter said, biting his lip in worry as he eyeballed the blog post.

"Well I hope your detention isn't too long then." Ned smirked, Peter rolling his eyes and groaning at the realisation that he'd just bolted from class. So much for figuring out what this was...


	4. THREE

Unsurprisingly Peter spent most of the evening sitting in detention, listening to the Captain America tapes lecture him once again. All he could think about was the lightning from before, he'd stare out the window for long stretches of time but saw nothing. Even the tingling had disappeared for the last few hours. Whatever it was, it'd had just...vanished.

When the bell rung, Peter was the first out the door, darting to find somewhere private for him to pull his suit on, webbing his backpack away and climbing up the nearest building, enjoying the refreshing view of Queens. Something that never seemed to get old.

He spent the rest of his evening milling around, very little seemed to happen today, everything was unusually quiet, he sat on the edge of an apartment block, watching cars pass under his feet. He sighed, lying down, just allowing himself to be in the moment.

"Hey, Karen." Peter said.

"Yes." The suit replied.

"Do you know anything about that freak lightning storm yesterday?" Peter asked, only to be met with silence. "Karen?"

"Mr Stark has asked me to to classify those reports." She answered, Peter jerking upwards in shock.

"What? Why?"

"I do not know, he did not give me a reason." She said, Peter sighing in frustration. But before he could argue more, distant sirens could be heard, the noise took Peter's full attention. Excitement running through his veins as he hopped to his feet and began swinging his way towards the sound.

"Bout time!" He whispered as he swung from building to building, swinging around corners and leaping through the air with precision.

He took the chance to swing higher than the buildings, enjoying the view of pedestrians going about the day on the ground below. But as he looked down, a flash of light caught his eye, like a camera flash from all over the street. He was about to investigate when he suddenly found his arms were once again uncontrollable, tensing up to his side as he slowly began plummeting.

"Oh, no, no, no." Peter mumbled, A red message box appearing in his suit's eyes marking the number of metres till he hit the ground. The numbers falling faster and he did, he desperately tried to pull his arms from his side, to gain any amount of control to shoot a web and save his skin. "This can't be how it ends!" He shouted, and just as Peter prepared to hit the concrete, control came flooding back, shooting a web to the nearest building, the substance tensing up and stretching immensely as Peter continued falling. But his descent slowed and came to a stop just a few metres from the pavement, Pedestrians stopping and staring at confusion.

Peter casually saluted them and began climbing up the web fluid, clambering onto of the roof and laying down, listening to his heart beat out of his chest and his breath raspy from the fear.

"Peter, you seem distressed, are you alright?" Karen asked, making Peter jump for a moment before he sighed of relief. She sat up, a little light-headed from the fall.

"No, I'm all good."

"I've already contact Mr Stark of you vitals spike." She said, Peter attempted to retort, but couldn't find the words and instead let out a dreary groan, and on cue up came a call from the man himself. Karen automatically put the call through before Peter could turn it down.

"You alright kid?" He asked, Peter took a deep breath and put on a cheery smile.

"Yep, dandy, fine, gucci, everything is fabulous. Nothing to worry about, nice talking, okay, bye." Peter stuttered through, but as expected Tony was having none of that.

"What are you hiding?"

"Nothing. Why, why...would I be hiding anything?" Peter shifted, trying to avoid giving any direct answers.

"I'm not stupid, what you up to?"

"Seriously, I'm just...being the friendly neighbourhood spider-man."

"Oh, well now I know you're defiantly up to something. Friday, pull up the kids suit's recent access logs."

"Wha-" Peter began in protest, feeling once more like he was nothing more than a kid.

"Oh, trying to access...lightning storms are we?"

"I was just curious." Peter defended, his light-hearted tone struggling to mask his frustration.

"Peter, I don't want you looking into it. So, if that's what sent your vitals spiking up, stop."

"Why? I dealt with the Vulture."

"Yes, but this isn't a guy in a suit. This isn't your business, this is shields business. Let them deal with it. The last thing I need, is a dozen calls asking me why a kid is getting in the way."

"But I just want to help..."

"You are, by staying out of the way. There's got to be a million other things you can be doing to help out. That doesn't involve dangerous freak incidents." Tony huffed, Peter being able to hear him discussing something with what he assumed to be Pepper. "Look, just promise me that you'll just keep out of it?"

"Okay, I promise." Peter mumbled, Tony sighing over the audio.

"Alright then, well good luck with the rest of evening, meanwhile I've got an evening dinner to attend." Tony muttered, hanging up himself, Peter rolling his eyes as he lay back down, staring at the clear blue sky above him.

"Great..."


	5. FOUR

Tony had been deep in thought the entire evening. He was supposed to be enjoying a company dinner, but he was more preoccupied with theorising on the lightning strikes. He'd kept glancing down at his phone, making regular trips to the bathroom as he read through Shield reports he'd had sent over.

Aside from the strike a park in queens, there were other instances arising, one near an up and coming science facility, one near one Tony's own facilities and another brief small occurrence outside Peter's school.

They seemed like random freaks of nature, there were no witnesses only the streaks of lightning left behind. Even when scouring the security footage, nothing really came to light, only showing a few frames of almost white lighting dashing horizontally along the ground, but just as quick as it had appeared it was gone. Nothing ever seemed to be taken or damaged...just making it all the more confusing.

Tony was looking over the security footage he'd had Friday download to his phone from his competitors facility, a certain Star Labs. While small and still growing, seemed like promising competition for a change. He'd hidden himself away in the bathroom, hovering over the skins as he clicked through the same sort of frames he'd watched on his facilities footage. Streaks of lightning held on the screen as Tony attempted to make some form of fathomable theory from it.

A hand grabbing his shoulder, pulling him jaringly form his own train of thought. He turned his head to see Pepper stood, a disapproving raised eyebrow as Tony smiled innocently.

"I don't mean to alarm you dear, but this is the-"

"Well if this hadn't become your little hideout this evening, I might not be in here." She said, crossing her arms as Tony slide his phone into his jacket pocket.

"Sorry."

"No I get it. Heroes job is never done." She said, looking at the pocket that now contained his phone before looking back up at him. "I was just hoping for a normal night for a change."

"You have my full attention. I promise."

"Tall tale." She remarked, a brief smile on his face as she rubbed his arm. "I get it. I'll make up some excuse and you go." She said.

"No, no It's fine."

"No, don't worry, your attention clearly isn't here." She interrupted, moving towards the door. "But, you owe me a rain check on the dinner." She smiled, leaving, Tony sighing, but thankful that he could ditch the whole company man charade.

Tony arrived back at his lab, ditching the Tux for something more casual. Friday booting up as Tony prepared the lab.

"Good evening Mr Stark." She greeted, Tony waving her off before sitting down at his computer, loading up all the reports and files, each in a small window on the screen. He began slowly scouring them all once again, even though he'd read them a dozen times at least already, clearly hoping something would jump out.

As he closed files down after reading them, he came across a report in a red border. The warning that came up when someone attempted to access it without authorization. He was about to brush it off, but his chat with the kid had him wondering.

"Friday, can you connect with Peter Parker's suit?" Tony asked.

"I believe Peter named her Karen."

"Oh he did, did he." Tony repeated, "Can you connect with Karen?"

"Yes." She replied, an interface popping up on the screen, Tony clicking into it, a large body of code loading up.

"Scan for the video logs." Tony asked, The code began scrolling, the computer selecting then deselecting as it went, eventually coming a code titled video logs. He clicked into it and was greeted with another window, clips dated each and every time the suit had been activated.

Tony clicked on the most recent file, a long few hour long file that he fast-forwarded through. Most of it was nothing but the kid laying around, occasionally moving to a different roof.

After a few minutes he found himself at the point that Karen had attempted accessing the reports. "Friday, can you sync Peter's vital signs with this video?" Tony asked, the recorded logs of his vitals appearing in another window alongside the footage.

"How odd..." He said, looking at the clearly stable signs, perhaps a bit frustrated but nothing he would have been alerted to.

"Is something wrong?" Friday asked.

"At what point did...Karen alert me to Peter's vitals?" Tony asked, Friday going silent for a moment as she took control of the footage. She pulled up the exact moment Peter's vitals spiked, Tony waited for the footage to match up.

"This is the matched footage," Friday said as she played the footage. Tony watched as Peter leap into the air and begin his decent. Everything seemed normal to begin with but Tony heard the kids cries. He didn't seem to be shooting any webbing, and instead Tony watched as the ground grew closer and closer, his heart pounding in his own chest until he saw him finally web to a wall.

"What the hell happened there?" Tony mumbled, rewinding the footage, playing it to watch the vitals beside him, though nothing seemed to stand out in the reports. He sat back in his chair, rubbing his lips as he sat staring at the paused image.

"There is something in the recording you should make note of." Friday interrupted, once again taking control and rewinding the footage back to when Peter first began his decent. She played it for a few seconds before pausing.

"What?" He said, leaning forward but not having seen anything. She re-winded the footage and this time played it clip by clip. Then he saw it. The lightning from the reports, jumping from place to place along the ground, just Peter lost control. Tony grabbed his phone, dialling up Happy from his contacts. The call went through almost instantly,

"Tony, um, Sir, how can I help?"

"I need you make a call for me."


	6. FIVE

By the time Peter arrived home it was already pitch black outside. He was greeted by May who'd managed to piece together something to eat. They both sat down at the table, sitting in silence for a while until May finally spoke up.

"I heard...you got a detention today?" She queried casually, taking a bit of the food in front of her, Peter biting and rolling his lips as he tried to avoid the topic altogether. "Ran out during a test?"

"Yep, guess my nerves got the better of me." Peter agreed, trying to let the conversation die quickly, but May was clearly not having any of it.

"Peter. Is something going on I should know about?" She asked. Peter was split. May already knew about his evening escapade as the Spider-man, he didn't want to worry her with these sudden uncontrollable bursts. She had enough to worry about without adding that to the roster.

"Everything is cool." Peter said, feeling like a broken record at this point, but he was hoping at some point people would stop asking.

"Okay..." May said, sounding defeated. "But if you ever want to talk. I'm here." She added, Peter letting out a small smile.

Suddenly, he felt his pocket vibrate, his phone buzzing away. He pulled it out to see...Happy?

Peter stared blankly at the phone for a few seconds, dumbfounded before realising he should answer, sliding over the button he put the phone to his ear.

"Happy? What, hi, um, what can I do for you?" Peter stumbled over his words, May pausing her own meal to loosely eavesdrop on the conversation.

"I didn't get a call from you today, quite unusual No old ladies to help cross the road?"

"Oh, no, not much happened..." Peter said, pausing. "Were you calling because you were worried?"

"Oh, no." Happy chuckled, Peter's smile fading as he raised his eyebrows. "Tony asked me call you. He want to meet you at the lab now."

"Now. It's pretty late you know...I mean, I've got like-"

"He said now, I mean, I've no idea what you've done but he was pretty adamant. So, you need to get your ass moving. Like now." Happy said, hanging up the phone.

"What was that about?" May asked, looking at Peter concerned.

"I've got to go..." Peter said, getting up from the chair and grabbing his suit before getting to the door, May followed close behind.

"Oh, well. Be careful, okay?" She remarked, smiling nervously as she watched her nephew nod and leave.


	7. SIX

Peter arrived at Tony's lab, he made his way into the darkened building, finding his way through the empty hall towards Tony's lab, where the man himself stood, pacing back and forth until Peter slowly opened the door.

"Good, you got my call." Tony said, hands in his pockets as Peter hovered in the doorway.

"Uh, yeah. What's this about?" He asked. A pause of silence before Tony scratched his nose and moved towards the computer. Turning it to face Peter before he hit play, playing the footage of his earlier fall. Peter let out a brief defeated sigh before holding his arms up in defence.

"That was, just bad judgement. It's really all good, and fine." Peter explained. "I mean, if anything it's a massive invasion of privacy, but you know."

"Peter why didn't you tell me. If you're suit is malfunctioning, just bring it to me. I'll fix it up." Tony explained, pushing the computer back to where it was. "Have you got it with you?"

"Um, yes." Peter stuttered, pulling the suit from his bag as Tony took it from his hands before he had even processed what was going on. The young kid was hesitant, nervously watching as Tony placed the suit down to work on.

"Friday, can you scan to see any malfunctions?" He asked, Peter watching as the suit was scanned, fidgeting in place.

"Um-" Peter began.

"Scan complete." Friday interrupted. "There are no detectable malfunctions." She says, Tony halting.

"You sure?" He asked.

"Yes." She responded, leading to Tony to turn to the nervous Peter who stood biting his lips.

"Then what happened?" Tony asked, his voice deepened, his face dropped and Peter could see the concern in his eye. But Peter couldn't find the words to explain, he didn't even know what was happening...how was he supposed to explain that. "Peter?"

"I don't know." Peter shouted, running his hands through his hair as he took a seat. Tony slowly walking over, kneeling beside the kid.

"What do you mean?" He asked, Peter looking at his hands, Tony picking up and glancing down.

"I really don't know...one moment everything is fine, it's...normal." Peter began, clenching his fists. "Then I get this tingling in my hands, and they start to shake and then it's like my whole arms just...tense up. They don't move, they don't, do anything." He explained, looking Tony in the eyes before back down at his hands. "That's what happened. They locked up, and I honestly thought I was going to plummet to my death, but they sorted themselves."

"How long has this been happening?"

"It just started today actually. I think since I first left the house this morning. It just feels like it's gotten worse." Peter explained. Tony getting to his feet and wandering over to his phone.

"Have you come into contact with anything?"

"No, nothing."

"Okay." Tony said, sifting through contact on his phone. "Friday, Scan him." He says, finding the contact he wanted and calling it. Meanwhile Peter sat still while the AI worked. Tony was out of earshot and those few seconds felt like a lifetime for Peter. But sure enough, Friday was done quickly.

"Scan complete." She said, Tony's head turning around as he lowered the phone from his mouth.

"And?" Tony asked, Peter also eagerly awaiting the results.

"There are no detectable pathogens within his system." She said, and with that Peter's heart dropped. He'd hoped it would be something simple, something that could be cured or fixed. Peter could even see Tony's frustration as he cursed under his breath. "However," Friday continued, getting both the men's attention. " I did detect a foreign body in Peter's collarbone."

"His collarbone?" Tony said, wandering over, Peter pulling his shirt down to see nothing of note. "There's injury. You been hit with anything recently?"

"No, everything has been quiet." He said, Tony wandering away again, mumbling into the phone quiet enough that Peter couldn't hear.

After another few minutes, Tony hung the phone up and wandered over. "I've gotten hold of an old friend, she'll look you over, but that means going now."

"Do you think she can figure out what's wrong with me?"

"At the very least, she has big exciting x-ray machine...so we find out if that foreign body has anything to do with it."


	8. SEVEN

The two heroes finally found themselves outside an unlikely facility. Star Labs.

"Your friend is here?" Peter asked, looking at Tony, confusion littering his face as Tony looked longingly at the modern architecture.

"She just so happens to be working late. Come on." He replied, ushering the kid through the glass doors into the dimly lit lobby area. They stood, idling in the open space for several minutes until a light caught both of them off guard. Shielding their eyes, they followed the beam to a flash-light in the hands of a young lady, strawberry blonde hair in waves, bouncing just off her shoulders. Ivory skin and deep brown eyes; wearing a pale blue striped blouse, tucked into a black pencil skirt.

"You lost boys?" She smirked, moving the beam of light from the boys eyes and wandering over. Tony letting out a gentle laugh as the two embraced in a friendly hug.

"Ah, it's good to see you Caitlin." Tony said, pulling away and gesturing over to Peter, whom she held a hand out for him to shake. "And this is my protégé, Peter."

"Nice to meet you. I'm Dr. Snow." She introduced as Peter accepted her hand. "And you must also be who we're all here about. Am I right?" She said, turning back to Tony, whom shook his head. "Okay, follow me." She smiled, leading the way through the lobby to a staircase up to the upper floor, and elevators.

"How do you know each other?" Peter whispered to Tony as the two cowered a few pace behind the doctor, hanging back as she called for an elevator, waiting at the door.

"Oh, back in the day she was a top contender to work for me." Tony said, leaning over the banister and looking down at the moonlight, tiled lobby area now below them.

"So, she did she get the position?"

"No, she accepted another offer. At least that's what I was told when she dropped out. Shame, she had a really good record, could've done a lot with her skills."

"But you kept in touch?"

"We reconnected when Star Labs expressed interest in a collaborative project that later fell through." Caitlin interrupted, alerting the boys that she'd been listening to everything. The two looked over at her, the elevator door propped open by her, as he nodded her. The two dashed in and she followed, pressing the button for the next floor.

"Collaborative project?" Peter asked, trying to break the silence and drum of the elevator.

"Nano bot technology, but differing interests ended with both parties leaving it at that. But plans had already been made to develop an additional lab here. And seeing as I had already met Tony a few times, I offered to take responsibility for the property. And here I am, a personal doctor for the man in steel."

"I wouldn't consider you that." Tony interrupted as the elevator door slide open to reveal a silver corridor, brightly lit, floor gleaming under the white lights. Quite the stretch from the downstairs.

"Oh really, what's this call about?" She smirked, leading the boys through what appeared to be a control room, a half-circle desk filled with monitors, all switched off; files scattered the desks. More larger monitors framed an oddly dimmed cove in the wall.

Nevertheless, the led them into a side room, a large and albeit ominous room filled with screen covered in numbers, wires and tubes coming out of nearly everything in the room. Cabinets and draws lining the walls, and what could only be described as a very...dentist inspired bed set-up in the middle of the room.

Peter nervously idled in the room, almost subconsciously trying to remain behind Tony, whom confidently strode around the room, picking up equipment for a better look. "Stop touching it." Caitlin said, Tony seemingly trying to play dumb, placed the equipment back down and wandered back over to Peter.

"So, where do you need me?" Peter asked, Caitlin pulling on a pair of gloves before turning to him.

"Hope up there." She said, pointing to the bed. Peter followed, Caitlin grabbing some tools before coming over. "So, Tony said you only started feeling sick this morning?" She said, poking an auriscope into Peter's ear.

"It's not so much feeling sick as it is losing control of my arms."

"How so?" She asks, moving to the other side to check his other ear.

"Well, I don't know how to describe it. But my arms feel like stone, they curl up to my body and shake. They feel really tense, I guess." He explained, Caitlin putting the device down and looking at the boy.

"How are you feeling now?"

"Fine. I haven't felt anything wrong since earlier this evening." He said, looking to Tony who leaned against the wall, rubbing his lip, his eyes saying he wanted this to be over quick. Caitlin paused, looking at Tony, whom looked at her before she wandered over and fetched a needle.

"I'm going to take some blood, is that alright?" She asked, Peter immediately felt an ounce of panic, he'd never had his blood check since he was bitten. What if it revealed his powers?

"Yes." Tony interrupted, before Peter could protest, the kid giving a look of confusion and frustration. "Though his might be a bit special."

"Prone to finding special kids aren't we?" She quietly hummed, Tony didn't seem to react, suggesting he didn't hear her. Peter didn't know what to make of it, how much did the good doctor actually know?

She was quickly done with the needle, taking it out of the room. "I'll only be gone a moment. Don't leave the room." She said, closing the door behind her as she left. Peter turned to Tony, whom quietly stared at the floor.

"You trust her with my blood then?" Peter hissed, staring at Tony who seemed to briefly avoid eye contact before looking up.

"I trust her a lot more than other people."

"How much does she know?" Peter asked, but before Tony could answer Caitlin returned, clearly sensing the tension in the room as she quietly walked back over to the bed.

"Well, that's testing, it'll be a while before that comes back. So." She began, looking at Tony than back at Peter. "How 'bout we do that X-ray Tony's been waiting for me to do since you walked in the door." She smiled, Peter nodding, Caitlin leading him out the room, giving a quick glance back at Tony before closing the door once more.

It was only a few minutes but it felt like an eternity for Tony as he waited for the two to return. He'd poked just about every instrument in the room, despite Caitlin's request, and he'd stared at everything just through the window pane into the control room, the core. The oddly dark cove being the only source of entertainment, theorising what oddities might be stored in that small space. Maybe more monitors, maybe a inspirational statue, maybe a secret door, or maybe a poorly lit hole in an oddly shaped room.

While he stared, the door opened and closed, startling the man as he shot round to see the kid and the doctor returned, a laminated sheet in Caitlin's hands and Peter returned to the bed's side, hopping up onto it as Caitlin pulled out a light box, switching it on.

"This is what I found." She said, clipping up the x-ray, Tony wandering over to see. Everything seemed to be in check aside from a small square blip along the collarbone.

"What is it?" Tony asked, Caitlin shrugged.

"To be honest, I've not idea what it is, and I can't tell you what it is from an x-ray." She sighed, sounding almost defeated. "What I can tell you, or at least guess. It don't think it's debris."

"It's not?"

"Well, the placement and the size and the lack of other injury, scars or other pieces of debris all suggest that it's probably...deliberate."

"You're saying someone surgically implanted a small thing into him without his knowledge?" Tony said, an eyebrow raised in disbelief.

"Not recently." She replied, looking over at Peter. "I didn't even see any scaring. So it can't be recent."

"So it's just a random thing that's been in him for years? Not what's causing the issues then?"

"I didn't say that." She smiled, looking at Peter who quietly listened along. "It took me two tries to get the machine to work."

"So, you have a dodgy machine."

"It's new. And no. There was electrical interference."

"Did you forget the freak storms around here?"

"What did you say after the first attempt Peter?" Caitlin asked, staring Tony dead straight in the eyes as she waited for the boy to nervously respond.

"It made my arms tingle for a brief moment." He said, Tony looking at the doctor stunned.

"But I thought you said it wasn't recent. Whys it only recently affecting him?"

"I don't know that, but I do know that if you want to remedy it." She says, looking over at Peter. "You'll need to have it surgically removed."


	9. EIGHT

In the same evening, Peter had made the decision to undergo the surgery, Caitlin setting it up for the same evening. The procedure was long and Tony waited through all of, having been taken to a small lounge area, where he spent the time, head in hands, worrying.

It was a moment when he found himself staring out the window into the bright lights of the city, cars bustling down the road and dozens of people still littering the streets despite night having fallen that Caitlin quietly entered the room. Her heels clicked against the hardwood floor, Tony spinning around to see the doctor stood opposite him, a small glass cylinder in hand.

"He's going to be fine." She smiled, Tony letting out a sigh of relief as he sat down on the couch beside him.

"Thank god." He uttered, a moment of silence before Caitlin walked over, placing the cylinder on the coffee table in front of him. A small metallic chip clacked against the glass before hitting the bottom. Tony sat up, grabbing the tube, the chip flailing around. As he looked closer he could see it wasn't just a square of metal, but was covered in circuitry and wiring. "What is this?"

"That's what I pulled from that kid of yours. Definitely not debris." She said, sitting on the coffee table, looking at the device. "I've never seen anything so small."

"Do you have any other guesses what it does?"

"None, it's strange. It's clearly old tech but at the same time...far beyond anything in this time." She explained, those words sticking with Tony as he stared at the device, unsure what to make of it.

Tony pulled out of phone, "Friday, what do you make of this?" He asked, the phone scanning the small chip.

"Most unusual, where did you find this?" She asked.

"This is what was in Peter. Make sure this is your number one priority."

"Whatever you say sir." She chuckled back, shutting off as Tony placed the cylinder back on the table.

"Friday, huh?" Caitlin said, Tony looking up to meet her gaze.

"Jarvis is...indisposed."

"Well, I'm sure you've got lots of friends to choose from." She remarked, getting to her feet, flattening her skirt as she did.

"I could always make one for Star Labs if you're lonely?"

"Oh, no. Thank you, but I prefer the company of people to computers." She smiled.

"AI's aren't all bad."

"No, but there's nothing like the feeling of reconnecting with an old friend." She added, making her way towards the steps. "I should probably check on Peter."

"How have you been?" Tony asked, Caitlin pausing and turning around. "You seem, really well."

"I've been...alright. Thank you." She said, grabbing her empty ring ringer and making it to the bottom step before a sudden gust of wind breezed through the room. Caitlin almost stumbling backwards, glass vibrating along the bar counter, a mug crashed to the floor and the glass cylinder seemed to spin in place before Tony grabbed it, looking over at Caitlin.

"What was that?" He said, getting to his feet, looking around but seeing nothing in sight.

"I don't know." She whispered, hastily moving towards the door. "We'd better make sure Peter's safe." She added, Tony jogging after her, the lights flickering in the room just afterwards. A trails of black soot dripping from the edge of the counter top onto the floor.


	10. NINE

Peter groggily opened his eyes. The room was bright, large windows made up one of the four walls around him. Blinds half shielding the dark sky outside. Peter sat up, pushing the white sheets to one side as he slid his legs onto the tiled floor.

He looked around the open space and finite furniture before turning to the door, seeing the hallway through the glass slit in the wood. He shakily stood up, gathering his bearings before taking a step forward. Wobbling he grabbed the end table next to him, a small plant pot teetered and toppled over the edge.

Catching the corner of his eye, his head whipped around to the pot, as he reached out his arm, it was like everything slowed down to an almost complete stop. He grabbed the plant, but it felt...strange, light as air. He released his grip, pulling his hand away to see the plant hover in the air.

He knelt down, getting a closer look, noticing how it wasn't so much stuck mid-air, it was just falling so slowly it looked like it was frozen. He grabbed the pot, placing it back on the table, and almost subconsciously he wandered to the window. Peering down tot he street to something so unbelievable.

Cars and pedestrians were frozen as well, the light trail of tail-lights was clear as day, it looked picturesque.

Peter now having gained some feeling back in his legs dashed out the room, the door swinging open like it weighed nothing. He skipped steps down the hallway, peering in every open door to see if he could find Tony or Caitlin.

Eventually he came across the lounge room, seeing Tony and Caitlin both affected as well. He sat on the couch, looking down at a cylinder on the coffee table, while she seemed to be heading towards the door. Peter wandered over to her, waving her hand in her unresponsive face.

He turned to Tony, bounding over to him. "Mr Stark?" He muttered, seeing no response from him, like he was nothing more than a statue.

"Well aren't you a fast little bug?" A voice echoed, Peter spinning around to see a man leaning against some counters in a small kitchen area.

"Wha-Who are you?" Peter huffed, taking a defensive stance in front of Tony, but the mysterious visitor didn't seem particularly threatened by the boy.

"Relax, I'm not you're enemy." He said, though Peter remained unmoved. "I'm August. August Heart."

"What do you want?"

"I'm here to meet you...was that not obvious?"

"Me?" Peter mumbled, watching the man stroke a collection of glasses as he walked past, wandering closer to Peter, yet keeping his distance.

"Well, I didn't do this." He said, holding his arms to remind Peter of the currant situation. "You did. I'm just running at the same speed as you."

"What are you talking about?" Peter hissed, confusion and fear taking the reigns.

"You truly don't know?" He said, cocking his head to one side as Peter shakily held his ground. Something the man noticed, watching the boys legs quiver as he stood with his arms raised. "We don't have time to talk now, but I can tell you everything if you're willing to give me a chance."

"Trust you? I don't know you."

"Maybe not, but right now I'm the only person on this planet who can tell you what's going on." He said, moving over to the weakening Peter. The boy almost stumbling back before August grabbed his arm. "I can help you control this Peter. I can tell you what that is." He said, looking down at the glass cylinder on the table, Peter catching a glimpse of something small inside. "I can give you all the answers, but I need some trust."

Peter stared at the cylinder, then up at Tony before his gaze turned back to August. His vision was growing blurry. "What's happening?"

"You're just tired, it's perfectly normal. You're body isn't used to your power yet." August explained, guiding Peter away from Tony and towards the door. "Will you let me help you?" He added as the two limped down the hallway towards Peter's room. The entire trip was groggy and a blur, Peter only managing to regain brief composure as August dropped him onto the bed.

"If you can give me answers..." Peter whispered. "I'm willing to listen." He said, August giving him a smile as he moved to the doorway.

"Star Labs has an airstrip at the airport, take that and show it the desk clerk." He said, pointing at a plastic card on the end table that Peter grabbed, looking at it before shoving it into his bag. "I'll meet you there, but, promise me one thing."

"What?"

"Keep this between you and me for now."

"Why? I trust Mr Stark with my life."

"It's not about trusting him right now. What do you think is going to happen when the world finds out a kid can slow down time in the blink of an eye. At least until we get you in control, keep it hush, hush." He said, waiting for Peter to reluctantly nod before he gently closed the door and seemed to almost vanish. Tiredness hit Peter like a rush, he dropped back against the pillow, his eyes teetering closed before he let out a sigh and everything went black.


	11. TEN

Tony and Caitlin jogged down the hallway towards Peter's room, opening the door and walking into the well lit recovery room. Aside from disturbed cover, the boy slept peacefully on the mattress.

"Doesn't look like this room was affected..." Tony hummed, still trying to make sense of what the wind could have been in the first place. Caitlin sat beside Peter, placing her fingers on his wrist as she timed his pulse. A few seconds go by and she places his hand gently on his stomach.

"He seems completely fine." She smiled, shrugging her shoulders, relaxing as things seemed to quieten down. "I reckon he'll be fine to go home when he wakes up, given his...special nature."

"I'm sorry I can't tell you."

"No, I understand. You just want to protect him." She said, getting to her feet and walking back towards the door. Pausing and turning to Tony. "You can stay with him to be here when he wakes up if you'd prefer." She added, Tony's head whipping around, hesitant by nodding nonetheless.

With a small nod, she pulled the door to and the sound of her heels on tiles faded away.

Tony moving over to the only lounge chair in the room, dropping onto it as he looked out the window.

"Friday, have you got anywhere with that device?" Tony asked, pulling out his phone, hoping to find something to kill the agonising wait.

"My scan isn't finished yet." She replied, Tony rubbing his eyebrows. "It's taking time to work through given it's complex nature."

"Complex how?"

"This is programming and coding like nothing I've encountered before. Varying portions of the code have been replaced with...well code." She explained, some brief screenshots popping up on his screen, lines of code initially coming across like it was the program of a well oiled machine, but on seemingly random lines were strange symbols replacing actions.

"Can you decipher it?"

"As it's a system not yet developed, I can't. I can only replace them with predictions and probabilities." She said, "But, Dr Snow may have had a point. This system is beyond anything previously developed, nothing in my records have any similarities."

"So basically we have no idea what it is, what it does and why it was in Peter?" Tony bite his lip before taking a deep breath, frustrated at being no closer to any answers.

"For now, I'm afraid not. Would you like me to continue with the report?"

"Yes, you might yet find something." Tony huffed, putting his phone back in his jacket pocket, sighing as he dropped his head back against the headboard of the seat. Just what could that little device really be, Tony wondered, I don't see what such a small thing could be trying to do, who even has the know how or technology to develop something so...unknown...in secret.

Groans pulled Tony from his train of thought, his head tilting back upright just as Peter sat up, rubbing his eyes before seeing Tony in the lounge chair.

"Oh, Mr Stark." He chimed, colour already returning to his face.

"Finally decided to rejoin the world of the living." Tony joked, getting up from the chair and walking over to Peter, hands in pockets. "How'd you feel?"

"To be honest." Peter began, the hint of a smile on his face. "Amazing." He let out a little laugh, looking down at his hands as he clenched them.

"Glad to hear it." Tony nodded in approval. "Well, the doctor says you're good to go home if you want to."

"Really!" He said, bounding off the bed with more energy than Tony expected to see. "Let me just, get out of this first." He said, gesturing to his hospital gown, grabbing his bag to change back into what he'd arrived in.

"Course." Tony agreed, reaching out and patting the kid comforting on the shoulder. As he did, he felt a brief shock from the boy, he recoiled his hand without Peter noticing. Tony hesitated, heading to the door, the handle in hand before he looked back at the kid. "You sure you feel completely fine?"

A moment of silence between the two, almost as if Peter had to really think about it, but with a nervous laugh Peter simply responded, "I feel...normal." He said, Tony nodding before stepping outside, closing the door. Looking down at his hand, clenching it before shaking his head, pushing the thought from his mind.


	12. ELEVEN

Peter had gotten home with no problems, though Tony had been awfully quiet on the trip home, something that was somewhat unsettling.

The evening couldn't have gone slower for Peter, he found himself unable to sleep, thinking about the mysterious man from earlier. He wanted morning to break so he could head to the airfield, which the more he thought about, the weird the location choice seemed.

Nevertheless, morning some came, Peter darted out the front door before May had even gotten up, leaving a note about heading out early before he caught the earliest bus towards the airport.

The ride was long, but Peter found himself drifting in and out of sleep as his body screamed for an energy recharge that he'd been unable to get during the nightly hours. Soon a gentle hand on his shoulder shook him awake, the bus driver asking him to leave as they'd reached the airport.

A brief thank you he was off the bus and spent a fair few minutes (more than he'd like to admit) looking for the right entrance. When he found one he made his way to the nearest receptionist and flashed the plastic card August had given him the night before.

"Oh, hang on one moment." She smiled, a little taken aback by the card. She typed away on the computer for a moment and then stood up and leaned over the the counter. "You'll want to head up those stairs, follow the hallway to the end and then take the elevator down, someone is waiting for you there." She explained, pulling a a bag from under her desk and handing it to him. "And I was requested to give this to you on arrival."

"Um, thank you." He said, unsure how to handle the situation. But he accepted the bag and followed the lady's instructions to the elevator. Thankfully there was only one button, down. When he reached the bottom floor, he was indeed greeted by someone.

August.

"You're here."

"Well, I did say I'd be here." He said, ushering the boy out the two glass doors onto the large open concrete layout. August leading him to a hanger and most importantly a small computer set up in there.

"What's all this for?" Peter asked, August reawakening the screens.

"To measure your vitals and speed." He said, leaning against the table to the monitors resided on.

"I thought you were going to give me answers."

"And sometimes it's easier to experience those answers than me just tell you." He smiled, "It's also more fun."

"Okay, what are you intending to have me do?"

"Get you to put those on for starters." He said, nodding to the bag that Peter hadn't had the chance to look in. A brief moment of silence before Peter placed the bag down and pulled out a suit and electronics.

"Do I have to wear this?" Peter said, looking at August in dismay at the rather...unflattering one piece.

"Only if you don't want to set all of your clothes alight."

"One piece it is." Peter said, heading to a small room off to one side he'd spotted. A few moments later, coming out a little more willing to burn his clothes as he fidgeted in the suit.

"And, you'll need these." August said, strapping a helmet on and wiring up a harness around his chest.

"Okay, seriously what is this for. Because I think you're taking the-"

"Calm down." August said, leading the boy to the open hanger doors, staring down the airstrip. "You're going to run. Down there."

"Down the airstrip?" Peter squeaked, the long stretch of lights and white paint linign the runway.

"Don't worry, it's not in use." August said, leaving Peter at the doorway and returning to the computers.

"But wh-"

"Just run." He sighed, Peter taking a deep breath, looking down the runway, shaking out his hands and a brief jog on spot before he crouched down, ready to bound off the start.

He took a second to close his eyes, feel the breeze and then he found himself taking his first step, and his second. At first it just felt like normal, like he was late for the bus and leaving school.

But, it soon didn't feel like just another jog. He could feel energy surging through his limbs, a tingle of tension for just a brief moment at a time. The air burning past his skin, like he was being hit with a thousand mile winds all at once, yet was cutting through it like it was nothing. He could sparks scratching past is skin, it didn't hurt, but he could feel the heat, and he could see the yellow beams radiating from his hands and arms.

The world seemed slow once more, not as slow as last night, but slower than normal, the sounds were like being underwater, blurred and disjointed. A quick glance back was all he really needed to be sold though, he expected to see the hanger no further than when he'd started, but it was so small now, so far away. He'd run for what felt like a second or two, how'd he get so far.

However, he'd failed to realise how long that glance back was, the end of the runway crept up and Peter in a flail attempted to come a halt, sending him flying over and rolling over the ground before coming to a halt. A small groan later, he lifted his head and the realisation came flooding back as he leapt to his feet in excitement.

He ran back to the hanger, still falling at the end of his run, but at least this time he managed to remain on his feet. Even if his hands were supporting him.

"Told you, way more fun." August chimed, swivelling around in his fancy...old and worn office chair.

"I just ran down a runway...in like, a few seconds. How?" Peter chirped, trying to contain his excitement, he could still feel the energy running through his veins, dashing small paces in...well in a flash. "This is so cool!"

"That's joys of having the speed force running through your veins." August said, finally capturing the kids attention for longer than a second.

"Speed force?"

"Yeah, it's where the super speed comes from. All speedsters are connected to it. It's where our power comes from."

"You mean there are other's who can do this as well?"

"Peter, only speedsters can move in flashtime."

"Um...I have no idea what your saying..." Peter said, suddenly overcome with confusion.

"Yesterday. When everything seemed frozen, that's flashtime. Where you're moving so fast that everything around you just...stops." August explained, and the moment he finished Peter had already realised what he was saying.

"You're a speedster as well?"

"Yep, though I think we got ours in very different manners."

"What do you mean?"

"That device, in your shoulder." August began, turning back to his screens, Peter lightly jogging to him to peer over his shoulder. He pulled up a blueprint for the chip. "It's a power dampener."

"Power dampener?"

"It takes away your powers, or at least suppresses them. They haven't actually been developed here so as to where it came from is beyond me. But this had been pinging signals off for close to 10 years now." He said, looking up at Peter who felt his heart sink.

"But I'm-"

"15. Yep. That means this device was put in you as a child. Meaning you were born with the connection to the speed force."

"Does that mean my parents...knew?" Peter mumbled, turning away, only met with silence from August. "I had superspeed my whole life...and never knew."

"You wouldn't be the first." August said under his breath, closing down the blueprint, a set of numbers coming through onto the screen, Peter looking over his shoulder as the monitor beeped.

"What's that?"

"You're recorded time, running from here to end of the strip." August said, almost a little disappointed.

"How fast did I go?" Peter asked, trying to distract himself from the power dampener.

"0.017 seconds."

"No way. It didn't feel like that."

"Maybe, but it's a hell of a lot slower than when we first met." August mumbled, Peter only just hearing.

"How fast was I then?" He said, August flinching, clearly not expecting Peter to have heard him.

"At that time we were both running at the the speed of sound, more or less. Four times the speed ran down there at."

"Wait...four times, where did all that speed go?"

"I don't know." He said, rubbing his lips for a second, "Gideon, why might a speedster suddenly lose speed like that." He said to the computers, Peter taking a moment to assess who he was speaking to. Then a blue holographic head blipped onto the screen.

"Peter is an unusual case. Considering his powers flooded back shortly after undergoing surgery." The voice said, looking the kid and then back to August. "My theory is that his abilities went into overtime to burn off the anaesthesia. Since then, it's likely settled to normal levels."

"So it was just a burst of energy..." Peter droned, a little disappointed he wouldn't be running so fast again.

"I wouldn't count on it." August said, Gideon's face disappearing from the screen. "We know you can run at that speed...we just have to get you back up to there."

"How?"

"Training. I'll train you." August offered. "If you're up for it."


	13. TWELVE

Peter was momentarily taken back by Augusts offer. While Peter wasn't too upset that maybe he wasn't as fast as he had been that first night, there was a weird excitement behind Augusts eyes.

"What do you say?" He asked, inching forward on the seat as he waited for Peter to answer.

Feeling pressured Peter simply nodded. The thought of running at the speed of sound was exciting and enticing on it own, but he felt a weird push from August to do it. He didn't really think too much of it, but wondered what August's intentions might have actually been.

"Great." He smiled, slapping his legs as he got to his feet. "Well, we can begin tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" Peter whined, after feeling so pressured into it and how little they'd do today, he might have started the training now.

"Yes, tomorrow."

"Why?"

"Because I need to set some stuff up that's going to take me at least a few hours before we can start. I wasn't really expecting all this you know." He said, as he clicked his mouse, shutting all the machines down. "I promise, bright and early. Six hundred hours and we'll start it."

"Okay." Peter agreed, a little less disappointed, maybe even a little hyped at the prospect of becoming faster. The more he thought it over, the more excited he felt, he simply couldn't wait to see what he could really do.

"In the mean time, try not to run around too much, seeing as you have little to no control." He said, packing some stuff into a bag and throwing it over his shoulder. "And be back here at six tomorrow. Got it?"

"Got it!" He smiled, watching August leave, hand in pocket as Peter hopped up and down like a giddy kid in a candy shop. Once he'd gotten over the idea he realised that May might be worrying about his early departure this weekend and made the conscious effort to slowly make his way home.

[Elsewhere...]

A surprisingly quiet day in one of Queen's many banks, few people seemed to be about for a change. Tellers were patiently twiddling their thumbs or serving the few customers in there.

One teller getting up to leave, heading out into the main lobby to go for a quick smoke break. Feeling a small nip in the air, he grabbed his jacket before moving towards the door, looking down at his cigarette box, pulling one out ready. But just as he reached the door, his feet went from under him, crashing to the ground. A security guard jogging over and a few onlookers startled at the sound of his fall. The teller recovered relativity quickly, turning around to hold a hand up and give a smile.

"I'm okay." He said, giving a rather chuckle of embarrassment. The security guard holding a hand out to help pull him up, but as he grabbed the hand he saw what exactly he'd slipped on. A sheet of ice trailing out the door.

Before either of them could move a rapid gust of ice shot into the building, encasing the two figures in a block of blue, steaming crystals. Onlookers taken a back, hesitating for a few seconds before screaming started. People running for their lives as more ice shot into the building, dozens of people now suspended in the cold environment. Ice creeping along the floor and walls like a jungle growing out of control.

In the chaos, walked in a rather unusual figure, pale skin and a light blue hue, a short white bob. A cloud of white dust falling from her open palms, drops of ice shattering as they dropped from her hand to the ground. Her heels clicking and crunching the glass texture under her feet as she walked through. Screamed still reverberating off the ice in the distance as the remaining people ran from the building.

She turned her hand hands, creating a solid ball of ice that she threw through the teller's glass, watching it shatter like it was nothing. She hopped the counter and walked into the back, finding the vault waiting for her, one that she simply iced, ripping the door from it's hinges with the force.

Without almost anyone even seeing her, she escaped with the vaults content before police had even arrived, leaving an ice cave of destruction behind.


	14. THIRTEEN

Tomorrow came and Peter once again up at the crack of dawn, writing another note and out the door in the blink of an eye. While he was still trying to demonstrate restraint, he couldn't help himself.

He arrived at the airstrip, showing the plastic card again, the receptionist sending him on. Though August wasn't waiting for him this time, so Peter made his way tot he hanger alone where his mentor was working.

He'd set up a few more fold away tables, more tech littered the area and power tools were laid out as well. August stood at one of the tables, looking over a thin silver bangle that was plugged into a laptop.

"Morning?" Peter said, August waving him off as he looked at his laptop than back at the bangle. The boy wandered over to the table, as his mentor finished up his work. "What's that?"

"Your new all important friend." He said, a bing from the computer and August unplugged the device, clipping it onto Peter's wrist. It was cold to the touch, smooth and lightweight. It fit snug onto the wrist and once it'd warmed to his body temperature, it wasn't even noticeable.

"What does it do?" Peter asked, looking up at August who was busy closing down the laptop and shoving tools to one side.

"It's going to help you understand your speed better."

"Like measuring my speed without all that gear?" Peter asked, feeling hope that he wouldn't have to put the same thing on from the previous day.

"Well, in a sense." August says, moving away from the table and into a more open area of the hanger. "That is fitted with a mini version of Gideon."

"Gideon?"

August chuffed and smiled, "Gideon is my AI. She'll measure everything going on with, your electrical output, your speed, your vitals. She can also answer most questions you give her."

"All in a bracelet?" Peter said, looking down at the thin piece of metal, seeing a blue digital face smile before blinking off.

"And that's not all." August said, crossing his arms. "Gideon, suit up." He added, sudden red started generating up his arm, a thick textured material crawled rapidly up his arm, then over his chest and down his body until his was engulfed by the material. He looked down at his now gloves hands, seeing through his familiar white eyes.

"What?"

"I figured you'd like an upgraded suit rather than training in that leotard." August said, Peter unable to stop looking at what he could see of the suit.

"Why'd you pick red and blue?" Peter asked, noticing the similar colours from his spider suit.

"I figured they'd make you feel more at home."

"How'd you-"

"Know?" August finished, stunning Peter. "I used to a detective. Knowing things was kind of my job."

"Used to be?" Peter whispered under his breath, seeing as August had already turned away to walk to the open hanger doors.

"That's all I've got for you today. Everything else will be a little...slower to get hold of." August says, Peter catching up to him. "But I can at least teach you some basics here."

"Basics?"

"Yes, basics. Like being able to stop without flying an extra twenty feet every time." August commented, Peter feeling a slight bit embarrassed as he turned to look down the runway. "I'll be talking to you through the imbedded earpiece in your suit, so even when you're down the other end you can hear me."

"You're not running with me?"

"Maybe when we get out into the world I might." August commented, stepping backwards. Peter hesitating before looking back at him putting a head piece on.

"Into the world? I thought you wanted to keep this quiet."

"I do. But the airstrip isn't the greatest place to train. It's great for basic stuff, but in terms of getting your speed up, we'll need more room. It's another reason for the suit." August explained, grabbing a tablet and tapping away. "It means we can run out there without anyone connecting Spiderman to the whole thing."

Peter turning back to face the runway, feeling nervous over the idea of some point actually running around Queens. He wondered how people would react to him like this.

"Peter?" August interrupting his train of thought, snapping around to see his mentor looking at him, eyebrow raised, concerned.

"Sorry, basics, yep." He said, looking back down the runway, getting down as he readied himself for the sprint.

"Hold it." August said, Peter pausing himself as the older man crouched down beside him. "Braking isn't everything you know." He said, Peter looking over at him. "Before you set off, I want you to do something."

Peter nodded, August lowering the tablet to look at the boy in the eyes.

"I want you to feel the speedforce in your veins. Feel the energy, the electricity, the tingling throughout your body. I want you feel the flow of it, how it surges through your body and out your feet." August spoke, his voice mesmerising, Peter closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, feeling the lightning in his skin.

"Running isn't about taking it full force all the time. You feel the speedforce, you talk with it. You use only what you need of that energy, no different than pacing yourself for a phys Ed lesson. Your speed scale just has a few extra notches." He added. Peter now feeling the warmth of electricity striking around his body, opening his eyes as he could have sworn seeing a reflection in front of him as he did. Jolting upright, the sudden surge of energy gone.

"Wow, that was..." Peter said, August getting up and dumping the tablet on the table, walking back to Peter, the boy looking at him in confusion. August looking down, giving a brief smile before he disappeared, a spark of blue lightning struck the ground, a black scorch mark where he'd been.

"Can you hear me?" August's voice came through the earpiece in the suit. Peter jumped, looking around and seeing a small figure off in the distance; the other end of the runaway.

"Yes." Peter said, getting to his feet and looking at the figure.

"I want you to focus on that feeling of the speedforce." He said. "And then I want you to run at me."

"What? But what if I-"

"I have faith you'll stop before you hit me."

"But-"

"Peter. Have some faith in yourself." August said, Peter hesitating before getting back down, taking a deep breath and focusing on the tingling in his fingers. Feeling it vein up his arms, down his ribs to his feet. Hearing pebbles beneath his feet rumble gentle, watching yellow lightning strike beside him, encasing him in a small cocoon.

Then he took a step, and another, thinking of like a any other run. Slowly he built speed, his legs moving quicker as he watched the world around his slow, birds stationary in the air. Planes in the distance slowed as well. He could feel the lightnings heat brush his arms as it flung itself behind him.

He knew from last time he couldn't stop to admire the view, focusing on his legs, seeing August approaching rapidly, his hands in his pockets as he calmly stood there.

"Stopping is no different. Use your whole body, lean back. Release the energy, let the lightning course through you to the ground and come to a stop." August said, Peter listening closely as he relaxed his body. Putting one foot out to slide, leaning back as the lightning multiplied, darting off in every which way as Peter held his breath, seeing August approaching just as quickly. Even closing his eyes until he felt himself at a standstill.

After a few seconds, he opened his eyes, seeing August just in front of him, only inches away. A small cloud of smoke dissipated from his feet, seeing black skid marks along the concrete.

"I stopped." Peter said, surprised that he'd managed to come to a complete stop.

"See, told you to have some faith." August smiled, patting Peter on the head before walking down the runway towards the hanger. Peter pausing, excited at the small progress, relaising August was leaving he caught back up to him.

"So what do we do next?"

"Today. You go home."

"What?" Peter said, disappointed. August looking at him, emotionless.

"To be honest I didn't plan anything else, I wasn't expect you to be such a quick study."

"Then when can we pick this back up?"

"Tomorrow, after you've been to school." He said, looking at the disappointed teen.

"You've received a message Peter." Came a female voice in the earpiece, the same one he'd heard yesterday. He jumped, August turning around with an eyebrow raised.

"A woman just said something."

"That would be me." She said again, Peter looking around startled.

"Who are you?"

"I'm Gideon." She said, Peter realising the suit was talking to him. Another suit, another lady AI. "Would you like to see your message, it's from a Mr Stark?"

"How do you know Mr Stark?" Peter asked, August now continuing to walk back tot he hanger, uninterested in the conversation.

"I don't. I automatically connected to your phone to make it easier to relay messages."

"Did you automatically connect to anything else?" Peter asked, somewhat concerned at how much free will this AI seemed to have.

"Yes, but only what was necessary. I won't interfere with any other programs."

"Wonderful." Peter mumbled. "So what's the message?" He asked, a text box popping up reading:

'Peter, I need to talk with you regarding a possible case I've got for you to work on. Swing by my office at some point today.'

"Wonder what that's about?" He said, the text box disappearing, but just as he was about to dash off towards Stark tower, he stopped. "How do I take the suit off?" He said, suddenly realising August was miles off in the distance, leaving his confused in the middle of the runway.

"Seriously, how do I take it off?"


	15. FOURTEEN

Making his way to Stark Tower, Peter had eventually figured out how to return the suit back into it's condensed bracelet container, he made his way quickly through security, passing Happy on the way up to Tony's office.

"Where have you been?" He asked the young teen who almost slipped past, but not quite. Peter bite his lips before smiling innocently at the unimpressed man before him.

"Why do you ask?"

"Mr Stark called you over two hours ago, as far as I know, you never bothered to call back. Usually you're impossible to pry from the phone. What mischief are you up to?" He asked, staring coldly at the teen whom nervously laughed as he walked away.

"Nothing, but uh, as you said, Mr Stark has waited long enough, catch up later." He said, darting off down the hall to avoid further questioning.

It's true that Peter had taken a long time to arrive, he even had missed calls from Tony that had been piling up while he made his way over. Something Peter hadn't even noticed at first, until he happened to check his phone for the time on the way over.

He wandered the tower for a while, pestering people to find out where Tony was seeing as he wasn't in his office and eventually found him working away in his lab. He knocked and walked in, Tony looking up, briefly dazed before it seemed to click who'd just walked in. The man stood up, nervously chuckled as he looked the kid up and down.

"Peter, I was starting to get worried. Why didn't you pick up?" Tony asked, Peter pulling out his phone for a moment pretending to try turning it on before showing the blank screen to Tony.

"Phone died. I just managed to see your text before it shut off." He lied, hoping he'd improved since he'd first attempted lying to his mentor here. It seemed to pass, Tony nodded slowly, somewhat disappointed and confused before rubbing his nose bridge, uming and ahing before strolling to a computer.

"Either way...I'm glad you're alright." He mumbled, Peter feeling a little jolt in his heart, the thought of Tony actually being worried made him...kind of happy. "But, anyway. Business. Over here." He added, Peter skipping over to the computer, standing just to the side of his mentor.

"Yeah, what's this...case?" Peter asked, curious at what Tony intended to put him up to. At first he'd hoped perhaps it'd be an avengers mission, but it certainly wasn't feeling like something big.

"Yesterday, this happened." Tony explained, tapping a few keys before a holographic projector popped up behind them, showcasing a short looping video file of one of Queen's largest banks encased in a wave of ice. Spikes protruding upwards and outwards into other buildings, cars and street furniture caught up in all the debris. Peter paused, seeing the footage seemed almost...haunting.

Sure he'd faced a lot, but seeing the aftermath was always the worst, the damage done, the pain suffered for not just heroes...but everyone around them. Tony seemed to notice the boys sadness, he too shared in the moment of silence before speaking up.

"Mid-afternoon, some time after three witnesses described a flourish of ice swept up the building in the blink of an eye. The inside is also encased in ice, everyone that was in the bank has since been melted free." He explained, Peter still unable to tear his eyes from the skin. "6 injured...and 3 dead." He said, Peter's heart sank. He felt a moment of guilt at having not been there, having been caught up in his new found abilities he suddenly felt like he'd neglected his ideals...being a hero.

"What caused it?" Peter croaked, finally looking back at the solemn man behind him.

"We don't know. Camera's were obviously useless, witnesses are unreliable and generally only speak of how the ice just appeared." He said, turning off the video before Peter could turn back around. "That's why I want you to look into it. After all, it is conveniently in Queen's, no better person."

"You want me to...investigate?"

"Of course." He said, almost offended that Peter would question his decision.

"You really think I can, do a good job? By myself?" He asked, in awe at being handed responsibility to run his own little man hunt.

"I think you proved you could get information when you dealt with Vulture. And that was with no one listening to you. This time, I'll be heading it, so to speak."

"Heading it?"

"The in-between man of you and shield. I need you to find out if it's a person, if it's a machine, a weapon, whatever it is, I need to know." He said, getting up, stretching his back before returning to his initial desk.

"So I just have to find out what the cause was?"

"To begin with...we'll see where we go when we know more. Okay?" He said, Peter nodding at the already getting distracted Tony who was jabbing away at some tech. "Call me if you find anything." He called as Peter made his way out the door.

The young teen heading out the door and making his way for home, taking a brief glance to the thin bracelet, before leaving the grounds.

[Elsewhere...]

"You made quite the spectacle." A raspy voice groaned out the shadows of the abandoned theatre stage hall. It looked more like a sport's hall than it did a theatre, with all the seats ripped out, all that was left was a wooden stage and long red hanging drapes to shape it, booths that lined the walls which contained the voice's owner. Contorted into one of the only remaining chairs, his head creaked as it tilted, flipping himself over to peer over the balcony. A white bob, clear as day walking over the pale wood floor below. Illuminating the dimly lit room.

The owner of the white hair glaring up at the masked figure, fixing his shirt collar as his head cracked towards the door behind them. A black abyss engulfing the entrance, and out walked yet another figure, a black suit and white skeletal mask covered his body.

"Don't you think she made quite the show?" Rasped the voice again, the two figures below looking up.

"I think she got us one step closer. And that's more than you've done." Echoed the quiet voice of the black figure as he looked down at the pale blue lady in front of him.

"Now what? Money is only a small part, what do we do now?"

"Now...the real work begins."


	16. FIFTEEN

Peter arrived home, Aunt May had left her own note this time when he arrived back, remarking how she'd gone out for a short while. Peter took the note before heading to his room, pulling out his phone to once again see a missed call, this time, from Ned.

He quickly redialled, hearing the click on the other end as well as Ned speaking, "Hey dude."

"Sorry, I saw you called earlier?"

"Yeah, I just wanted to maybe, meet-up or something. But like, if your busy-"

"No, it, my phone. My phone just died, so I could pick up. Uh, but I, I am currently doing something for Mr Stark."

"Oh, like a spider-man thing, right?" He said, the enthusiasm in his voice could even be heard over the crackling of a phone.

"I guess you could say that yes."

"Do you need help with it? Please say you do."

"No, it's actually kind of a boring thing right now, I'm just going to look over some files and stuff. Not the most exciting."

"Oh, well I could still help you look through it if you want."

"I don't know, it's kind of...I'm just looking into that ice mound at-"

"Oh..." He said, a pause of silence from the boys before Ned spoke again. "Yeah, I saw the news. There's a lot of freaky stuff happening recently, the electric storms, that ice slope."

The mention of electric storms suddenly sparked an idea in Peter. After all, he now knew the cause of those storms...was August. So what if the ice was the cause of someone as well.

"Hey, Ned I got to go, talk tomorrow?"

"Yeah, sure. See you to tomorrow." He replied, a little disheartened as he hung up the phone, Peter looking down at choosing work over his friend. Catching a glimpse of blue dots flashing on the metal bangle clipped to his wrist.

"Gideon?" Peter asked, to small dots flashing up on the bangle, dots that looked and behaved like eyes as they peered up at him.

"Yes Peter." Reverberated a voice from the metal.

"Why didn't you tell em about any of the missed calls like you told me about Mr Starks text?"

"Because I put them through to voicemail."

"What, no. Why would you do that?" Peter asked, a little concerned, the small eyes jumped back, seemingly upset.

"I'm sorry, I usually do that for Mr Heart, I assumed you would like me to do the same." She replied.

"It fine, I just can't really go around with a 'dead' phone permanently, so maybe don't do that?" Peter said, watching the two spark back to life with a little excitement.

"Yes." She chirped, just as Peter opened his laptop. "It's been a long time since I follow anyone's instructions other than Mr Heart's." Peter paused, looking down at the bangle.

"Mr Heart didn't make you? Did you work for other speedsters then?" Peter asked,a pause of silence, a ellipsis played for a few seconds before the eyes returned.

"I don't have access to those files I'm afraid." She said, Peter nodded, biting his lips looking at the computer screen, opening up the files he'd received from Tony in regards to the case. "Are those what your working on?" Gideon asked curiously.

"For an AI, your awfully inquisitive."

"Would you like me to not be?" She said, her eyes embarrassed on the screen.

"No, it's actually pretty cool." He said, opening up first the initial shield report. Just like Tony had said, 6 civilians were counted as being injured, 4 of them were in critical condition after being rescued. 3 civilians had already frozen to death before they could be rescued. At least one them seemed to have suffered an accelerated version of frostbite.

That wasn't all, in addition to the casualties, several thousands were stolen from the vault in the back. The door had been ripped off it's hinges by well-placed ice shards. The ice itself not only seemed to have a controlled path but didn't behave like ice, instead of melting away in the heat it instead seemed to spread like a virus, taking a concentrated blast of heat to even start clearing the solid mass.

Peter glossed over the early report, many notes claiming to be waiting on updates for a more detailed report of the situation. Most of the witness statements connected to the file were as useless as Tony had said, most just commented on how it suddenly just appeared out of nowhere.

He decided to switch to some video files he'd also received, hoping that these additional clips would shed more light on the topic. They were CCTV clips from camera across the way, playing them revealed little to the naked eye.

Just like the witnesses claimed, ice shot up from the ground, encasing the building in a mere few seconds, the camera didn't seem to catch anything other than panicked pedestrians and cars. The clip ended shortly after with Peter still unsure what to make of the situation.

"Could you play that again?" Gideon spoke, startling Peter as he looked down at the metal band, seeing Gideon's eyes peering back at him. Peter hesitated but played the clip again, waiting for Gideon to speak up.

The file itself paused, Peter looking down at Gideon who seemed to be looking intensely at the screenshot before a beam of faint blue light drew a circle of a section of the image. The small square enlarging and clearing pixels to create a clear image.

An image of what looked like a figure with short hair, an unusual jumpsuit and poncho walking up to the bank.

"Rather strange to walk into the chaos instead of fleeing with everyone else, don't you think?" Gideon commented, Peter letting out a smile as he stared at the figure standing on a sheet of ice.

"So just like August was the cause of electrical storms...she might be the cause of this ice attack." Peter hummed, pulling out his ready to call Tony before Gideon spoke up again.

"This seems familiar..." She whispered, Peter holding his phone in his hand, staring at the bangle, reconsidering making the call.

"Familiar how?"

"I can't access-"

"Those files. I get the feeling this is going to be a recurring them with you." Peter said, Gideon looking up with sorrowful eyes.

"I'm only a portion of the original Gideon...all my memories and files are with the master Gideon, with August." She said, a pause of silence before she chirped back up with, "But maybe August knows, perhaps you could ask him about her first?"


	17. SIXTEEN

Peter found himself once more at the airfield, hoping August was still here. He decided to follow Gideon's suggestion of seeing if August did know anything before taking something so small to Tony.

He walked in, the place seemed quiet and there didn't seem like around. Nevertheless he wandered further in, looking at the powered-down machines and desk. There were scraps of paper dotted around but when Peter took a closer look, they seemed...unusual to say the least.

Strange symbols lined across the paper. It looked like some form of cypher, but what kind, Peter couldn't tell. It was like nothing he'd ever seen before.

"Peter?" Called a voice, the voice of August. Peter spun around to see the elder man walking up to the desk. The young teen fumbled his words as he composed himself, wondering where to begin. "I thought I said we were done for today?"

"Oh, I know. But that's not what I'm here about."

"Oh?" August said, putting what seemed like a ring the desk before looking back at Peter.

"Uh, Mr Stark has me on a new case and I think I've found something with it but..."

"But?"

"Well, Gideon found it, she said it seemed familiar." Peter explained, holding up his arms so that Gideon could project the screenshot from before. "But she can't access those files."

"Not surprisingly, she's only really programmed to measure your speed." August comments dismissively before looking closer at the screenshot. "She is familiar though. A cryokinetic, how exotic."

"A...what?" Peter said as the projection faded and he lowered his arms.

"A cryokinetic." August repeated, but Peter continued to blank to term. "She freezes stuff."

"But you say it as if there are loads of them?"

"There are." August says, Peter paused, unsure what to say to that. "But most of them aren't an issue. Like speedsters they are few and far between."

"Well, what's the best way to take her on?"

"Um, that would be to...not." August said, wandering away from the desk as if he intended to leave the building.

"Wait..."

"Peter, trust me, it's best to not involve yourself there. Ice and Speed don't exactly work hand in hand." August said, pausing in his tracks to look over at the frustrated teen. "Look, it's not that I don't think you can handle yourself...I just don't think the best first opponent is one of the speedsters natural enemy."

"Could you at least tell me about her?" Peter asked, hoping to get something more substantial to give back to Tony.

"She can produce ice formations from her hands, she can withstand below zero temperatures but get some power dampening cuff and she'll only have her wits."

"Power dampening cuffs?"

"Let me guess, like your chip that's not something that exists?" August remarks, Peter biting his lip, unable to answer. "You're just proving my point here."

"Well I can't do nothing."

"Being smart isn't doing nothing. Pick your fights." August says, a pause of silence. "Look if it bothers you that much, how about I keep an eye on her...while you improve your skills?"

"Keep an eye on her?"

"If I find her I'll deal with it...otherwise." He says, almost annoyed at taking the responsibility. Something that just felt off to the teen...especially seeing as he'd said he used to be a cop. He didn't give off many heroic vibes.

"Oka-" Peter hummed before a crackly audio file showed up on one of August's computer screens.

"We got a 10-11 sounding at Mercury Labs, needing someone to head over and check out the disturbance." The audio crackled, like it was over a radio, Peter turned to August.

"I tapped into the police radio, I wanted to keep track of things happening."

"What's a 10-11...is that-"

"Alarm...possible break-in. Mercury Labs isn't exactly the poster child of good security." August commented, closing the audio file, pausing and looking back at Peter. "You know what, seeing as it's probably just some kids, why doesn't the new resident speedster check it out?"

Peter smiled, looking down at the bangle. "Gideon, suit up."


	18. SEVENTEEN

Peter managed to find Mercury labs with surprising control over his speed. The place seemed quiet, police hadn't yet showed up and the alarm seemed to be a silent one. He first tried to lobby doors, finding them still locked, he quickly scoured the building but everything was sealed tight.

"Maybe it's a false alarm?" Peter hummed, seeing the light still active for the alarms linked to the doors and windows.

"Did you check for ventilation, roof access?" Augusts voice came through the earpiece just like training. Peter looked up, seeing the tall skyscraper they called a lab.

"Uh, have you seen how tall this thing is?" Peter said, seeing no indication of a fire escape down the side and therefore, no way up.

"Peter, you have both super speed and you stick to walls." August said, Peter pausing.

"Okay, first, your glove design kind of inhibits that factor and two, I can run a building?" Peter exclaimed, but taking a few seconds figured that would indeed be possible for him.

"If you run at your top speed, you should be able to manage it. Just don't slow down while your running up and...try to stop pretty fast so, you know, you don't fly off the other side." August said, Peter feeling a little hesitation at the idea of running up the side of a building to his possible death.

"Can't I just take the gloves off?"

"Sure, but you'll never learn if you do that." August chimed, Peter huffing before taking a few steps back. Taking a deep breath before he committed to running. He took off, flying at his fastest speed, pushing off the ground and gripping his boots against the glass walls.

Surprisingly his boots had quite the amount of traction and while it was pretty straining on his legs and a little disorientating running sideways, he was doing it. He was running up a building. But much like the airstrip, the run didn't last long, he soon found himself at the top of the building, almost tripping over the lip around the flat roof.

He tried to remember back to his earlier training, leaning back, letting the electricity flow from his veins down into the ground, feeling the static leaving his body as the other roof lip approached. He burrowed his feet into the gravel, feeling small pebbles flick off as he came to a halt, catching the lip that briefly threw his body forward just enough to see the ground below. Letting out a mix between a sigh of relief and a nervous laugh.

"Take you made it then?" August chimed, Peter still catching his breath as he waited for his heart to feel less like it was about to explode.

"That was awesome!" He shouted, covering his mouth instantly as he remembered he was supposed to be sneaking around. "How did I not think about doing that soon?" He trailed off, only for August to interrupt him.

"It may be fun and all, but if there's some advice I can give you is never slow when running down a building unless you want to be one with the sidewalk." He said, which seemed to drown out Peter's excitement somewhat. Well being told if your not careful you could go splat would probably dampen the mood. "But brief lesson done, is there roof access?"

Peter recovering his focus started looking around, the were some fans and a roof access door, but he tried to lock to find it was also locked. "It's locked as well." He said, looking around to see a small vent in the roof, too small for a human to fit through though.

"Well, having looked at the alarm report, it's a weight detector so to speak. It measures weight distribution through pressure pads. So something tells me that there is something in there."

"How did you get access to that?"

"I think we should definitely focus on the possible trespasser first." He replied, attempting to shift Peter's focus from August's possible _questionable _actions.

"Well how do you suppose I get in, the only open access if a vent that even I can't fit in." Peter said, tugging at the door handle in front of him.

"Well, I guess running up a building isn't the only thing you'll learn tonight." August mumbled, his annoyed tone coming through once again. "This is going to be more difficult, but. Try vibrating just your hand and grab the door handle."

"Vibrate my hand...I can barely run in a straight line, I mean I overshot this lab at least twice." Peter complained, looking down at his hand, unsure where he'd even start with that.

"The super speed within us doesn't just make us run faster, we ourselves are faster, in every aspect. It's our very molecules that speed up to cause the speed, you just have to focus them on one part of your body."

"This just gets more and more complicated..."

"Trust me, this is as simple as it gets for our kind." August muffles through the coms. Peter looks down at his hand again, he tried focusing on it but he could feel his whole body going every time.

"It's not working..." He said, still trying, his voice vibrating as he spoke. He tried a few more times before August spoke up.

"Stop." He said, and Peter took a breath. "Just relax, breathe, clear your mind. There's no rush." He said, and Peter did just that, closed his eyes and focused on breathing for a few seconds.

"Okay."

"Now, don't force it. Super speed is about feeling it, remember. Feel the speed force. Feel it all over." August said, and Peter much like his training earlier in the day, he let the electricity flow through his body, feeling it spark in his veins, letting his whole body experience it. "Then instead of letting it flow to the ground, flow it to the body part you want to use. Direct it to your hand."

Peter felt the surge of electricity stop in it's tracks, he felt it shift direction and start pouring towards his arm, he watched as the rest of his body returned to being still, while his arm continued to vibrate in front of him. The momentary excitement almost caused him to lose his focus, but he contained himself and grabbed the door handle, watching it shake violently before falling off and the door swinging open.

"Uh, was the door handle supposed to fall off?" Peter said, feeling a little bad that he was now also breaking and entering.

"You said you wanted in." August said, getting a disapproved grunt from Peter as he wandered in and door the staircase.

"Where is the alarm sounding?" Peter asked, pausing on the staircase, looking down to see the dozens of flight below him.

"Basement labs, level 2." He replied, Peter's feet sparked before in a matter of moments he was down at the basement level. Honed his new skill to open the few locked doors into the area. He wandered in and found most of the door and rooms were open now. Some glass containers open and things scattered. Not in a ransack sort of way, but methodically and carefully searched. It seemed like an unfinished job.

There seemed to be no one in sight, so Peter took the time to quietly and carefully scour the open rooms to try and gauge what had been looked through. "What is all this stuff?"

"Looks like the basement levels are for current projects that aren't yet public, experimentation and trials. Level 2 looks to specifically be researching into particle manipulation technology." August explained, Peter pausing his sifting.

"How do you know this?"

"They have it all documented on their server for new employees."

"So it's private is what you're saying?"

"I would imagine they have bigger concerns than me looked over their induction files, don't you?" August brushes Peter off again, letting the teen continue to search, seeing rather interesting gizmos and gadgets but nothing stood out.

Until he found himself in the remaining room, where a rather out of place empty glass container stood. A small white sticker marked as U-D 1.

"August, you wouldn't happen to know what U-D 1 is, would you?" Peter asked, looking around to find the remaining room was the least messed with, but it also seemed like the emptiest room of them all as well.

"U-D 1 is a device that they were researching as a third party. It's dead and haven't been able to work out how to revive it and therefore don't know what it does. The picture shown is of a small circular device with a button in the middle."

Peter looked around, wandering around the central desk before wandering back out in the corridor. Just as he came to a stop, he felt all the hair on his body stand up on edge, hesitating before turning around to receive a stool to the torso, sending him flying through the glass walls that contained the labs.

He landed on one of the lab table, rolling off onto the ground with a groan. Quickly getting back to his feet to hear the crunch of glass and the crack of bones as a dark figure walked over to him.

He sported a tattered black tuxedo, a white porcelain doll mask with red dreads dangling off the side. Black hollow eyes staring at him as he slumped over to Peter. The speedster jumped to his feet, swinging a right hook that ended up spinning the figures head 180.

Peter stumbled back, hands over mouth as he gawked in horror at the very clearly broken neck, waiting for the body to slump over. But to both his relief and horror the figure corrected his head orientation, a small crack of his neck as he looked at the teen.

"What the-" Peter began the figure leapt at him, using the table for leverage Peter ended up with a roundhouse kick to the face, falling into the lab table, stunned.

The figure didn't stop there, grabbing his suits neck and tossing him into a set of cabinets filled with other devices and tools, glass shattering everywhere as Peter grabbed his breath on the floor.

The masked man took that as his cue to leave, crumpling more glass under his feet as he went, but somehow Peter found some leftover strength. He got to his feet, rushing over to the figure only to be met his a shock. Quite literally. The figure pulled a taser and pressed it to the teens gut, sending him back to the ground, unable to move his limbs.

"My apologizes young man." The figure spoke, his voice raspy and quiet as he leaned over. Pulling the U-D 1 from his pocket and flipping it like rather large coin. "This ol' Ragdoll has to make his exit." He said, leaving as Peter slowly regained some control. He crawled himself down the corridor, and after finally getting full control back he followed the man, only to find he truly had made his exit. Peter quickly dashed through building, the burst of air knocking things over and sending thing flying. But he really was gone.

"Peter, you okay?" August spoke, Peter sighed as he ran back to the roof, peering over the edge.

"I'm alright, but this...Ragdoll got away." Peter said, irritated to have been bested. But he knew what had been stolen...now if he only knew what U-D 1 was.

[Moments later...]

Arriving on the call, two officers stepped out approaching the skyscraper. "What do you think it is this time?" one of them asked the other as they approached the lobby doors.

"Probably more teenagers proving how bad their security it." The other remarked, the laugh chuckling as they unlocked the door and wandered in. A little taken back by the lobby mess, statues were cracked on the ground and papers were everywhere. They looked at each other before pulling their guns and heading down to the basement where the alarm had sounded.

When they got there, the place was in shambled, glass was shattered across the floor, wiring littered the ground and metal shards and plastic piled high in places. The two cops were stunned, lowering their weapons as they briefly glanced at each other before back at the mess.

"I think we'd best call this in."


	19. EIGHTEEN

Late into the evening was about the only time Tony had free, taking the time to the fly over to Star Labs while that too had quietened down for the evening.

He bypassed security and reception easily, heading up to in the lift to find his way Dr Snow's lab. There were few people in the corridors, all of them were packing up to leave and barely noticed the billionaire passing them by.

He eventually found himself down a flight of stairs to a small lab around the back, one cluttered with wires, tools, boxes of unused parts and large machines that sat, gathering dust. Caitlin was sat, fiddling writing away on a notepad.

"Dr Snow?" Tony said, causing her to jump as her head swivelled around to see the man behind her. "Do you not have a..nicer office."

"This is my office." She replied, placing the pen down, spinning the stool around to face Tony. "Any other kids you'd like me to perform surgery on?"

"Not today." He replied, hands in his pockets as wandered around the room, admiring the handiwork around him. "I actually came to see if you knew something."

"About?" She said, following him as he paused in his tracks, hesitating before looking her in the eye and speaking.

"The bank incident." He said. A moment of silence between the two as Caitlin turned away and sighed.

"If you're asking if I was responsible."

"You know that's not what I meant." Tony interrupted, as the two looked solemnly at each other.

"I'm afraid I don't know anything about it. It was as much a shock to me as it was to you."

"Could it be someone-"

"I wouldn't discount it. Though I was hoping they wouldn't exist here." Caitlin muttered, interrupting Tony before he could finish.

"Well, hopefully Peter will come back with something."

"Your protégé?" Caitlin hissed, Tony wandering back to her side as she raised an eyebrow disapprovingly. "You put a kid who only recently got out of surgery to remove an unknown device, up against a possible dangerous ice villain who's already killed?"

"Well when you put it like that." Tony said, his eye shifting back to the clutter around the room, trying to avoid the unimpressed glare of the doctor.

"Did your AI figure out what the device was?" Caitlin asked curiously, regain Tony's attention.

"No, even Friday couldn't figure it out. The coding in it was riddled with a...cypher. One I've never seen before, there's no way to decode it fully."

"But you could partially decode it?" Caitlin asked after noticing Tony's phasing.

"They seemed like instructions...but what they were I don't know. And it annoys me." He admitted, feeling defeated by a piece of technology, it was both embarrassing and worrisome.

"If you'd like I could look into it, after all I've probably got more free time than you." Caitlin offered, Tony smiling back at her.

"By all means, you're welcome to it." He replied, pulling the glass cylinder that contained the chip from his pocket, tossing it to her.

"You had this on you?"

"No safer place." He smirked. Caitlin placing it on her desk before smiling back at Tony. "You wouldn't happen to have gotten Peter's blood results as well?"

"His blood work?" She said, Tony looking curiously at her as she thought back to the results. "Uh, they were normal."

"Nothing special?"

"Nothing out of the ordinary for a teenage boy, no. What kind of special was he supposed to be?" She asked, Tony shrugging it off as he walked towards the door.

"Don't worry about it, just glad that...he's all clear." He said as he held the door handle in his hand.

"You really care about that kid." She said, Tony looking up at her as she smiled approvingly.

"I mean, of course, he's a useful asset."

"Whatever you say." She smirked, getting to her feet, grabbing the cylinder and notepad, wandering over to the door, pushing Tony's hand down and letting it swing open. "But your eyes tell me everything." She added, sliding past the man and down the corridor as Tony smiled before making his own way out.

Caitlin walked into the cortex, seeing everyone had already left, the place was quiet, it was so much more peaceful than during the day. She'd forgotten what it was like orchestrating so many people day in and day out. And this Star Labs wasn't even up and running yet, things were still moving in and sorted.

She took a moment, setting the notepad down, looking up at the cuby hole in front of her before holding up the glass container in her hand. "I take it you want this." She said, pausing before she turned around to see a figure turn the corner, leaning against the walls. "What are you up to August?"

"Nothing you need to worry about Dr." He said, taking the cylinder from Caitlin, examining it before vibrating his hands to the point the chip was destroyed.

"Does it have something to do with Peter?" She asked, worry in her voice, August looked up at her.

"I'm trying to protect him."

"You mean use him." She hissed, August moving to the archway, looking back at the doctor.

"We both want the same thing." He said. "And he's the key." With that, a brief spark of blue lightning and the figure was gone. Caitlin letting out a deep sigh of relief, her hands shaking as she pulled out a chair, sitting down with her hands over her mouth, leaving her with just her thoughts.


End file.
